Map Editor, Grid, Sound Effects

First off, the map editor is coming along nicely. You can change tiles; load, place, and transform sprites (scale and rotate); create and manipulate geos (formerly called geometric objects); and resize the map. To do: allow user to change tile set, add color tint option for map and all objects on it, add sprite editor, save it all to a file, and load it back up from the file.

I'm getting closer. I'm feeling pretty good. As soon as I can save and load maps, I'm going to create a test level to play around with. So far I have two players on a map with a small geo off to the side and two sprites below, both arches, one scaled and rotated slightly.

I spoke previously about how segments will inevitably be tested multiple times when dragging due to my grid setup. I thought I'd done the best I could and there wasn't much else to do. However, the solution hit me this morning and I tapped away at the keyboard until it was done. The result was success. No segment will be tested twice. Neither will any sprite, geo, etc. I'm quite proud of my little discovery.

Originally, the size of each geo and sprite would've been smaller than a grid square so that there wouldn't be any chance of being tested multiple times, but that was quite restrictive and would've been alot of trouble. But that's irrelevant now. I can now make them as big as I want. What I do is assign each run through the grid an ID and check with each object to see if it has already been tested during this particular run. It works beautifully and it will make things easier in the future.

I also allowed for blank tiles, which would be placed beneath large sprites. The idea of big sprites is becoming more attractive as I improve my engine. At first it looked ugly, but it's growing on me. I'm excited.

Lastly, I was reading TIGSource, and came upon sfxr, which is an easy to use sound effects generator. The creator described it as an "MS Paint for sound effects." I like that description and while I think it's slightly more difficult than paint, it is nevertheless, as promised, easy. I've never generated a sound before and I now have some fun test sounds for Sever. They are by no means the final cut, but sfxr may be my sfx program of choice. It really is good for us sound newbies. Give it a try. It's mostly retro, but you can play with it to make it a little less electronic.

Now that I have some sounds, I'll probably get to work on some sound code. I'll probably finish the few things I'm working on now, but I'll get to it soon. I'm excited to "hear" Sever. I'm feeling comfortable with sfx now. I think I can do it. Next stop: music.

Thanks for reading! Questions? Suggestions?

clevceo